C-TEST

'MY LIFE AND WORK'
by Henry Ford (1922)
In Collaboration With Samuel Crowther
INTRODUCTION (2)
WHAT IS THE IDEA?

I have n quarrel wi the gen attitude o scoffing a new id . It i better t be skep of a new id and t insist up being sh rather th to ru around i a conti brainstorm af every n idea. Skepticism, if b that w mean cautio , is t balance wh of civili . Most o the pre acute trou of t world ar out o taking o new id without fi carefully invest to disc if th are go ideas. An idea i not neces good bec it i old, o necessarily b because i is n , but i an o idea wo , then t weight o the evid is a in i favor. Ideas are o themselves extraor valuable, b an id is ju an id . Almost a one c think u an id . The th that cou is devel it in a prac product.

I a now mo interested i fully demons that t ideas w have p into prac are cap of t largest applica they ha nothing pecul to d with mo cars o tractors b form some in t nature o a univ code. I am qu certain th it i the nat code a I wa to demon it s thoroughly th it wi be acce , not a a n idea, b as a natural co .

The natural th to d is t workto reco that prosp and happ can b obtained on through hon effort. Human ills fl largely fr attempting t escape fr this nat course. I have n suggestion wh goes bey accepting i its ful this prin of nat . I ta it f granted th we mu work. All that w have do comes a the res of a certain insis that si we mu work i is bet to wo intelligently a forehandedly; th the bet we d our wo the bet off w shall b . All o which I conceive t be mer elemental com sense.

I a not a reformer. I think th is enti too mu attempt a reforming i the wo and th we p too mu attention t reformers. We have t kinds o reformers. Both are nuis . The m who ca himself a reformer wa to sm things. He is t sort o man w would te up a whole sh because t collar but did n fit t buttonhole. It would ne occur t him t enlarge t buttonhole. This sort o reformer ne under a circumstances kn what h is do . Experience a reform d not g together. A reformer can keep h zeal a white he in t presence o a fa . He mu discard a facts.

Since 1914 a gr many per have rece brand-new intell outfits. Many are begi to th for t first ti . They ope their ey and real that th were i the wo . Then, wi a thr of indepe , they real that th could lo at t world criti . They d so a found i faulty. The intoxication o assuming t masterful posi of a critic o the soc systemwhich i is ev man's ri to assu unbalancing a first. The very yo critic i very mu unbalanced. He is stro in fa of wip out t old or and star a n one. They actually man to st a n world i Russia. It is th that t work o the wo makers c best b studied. We learn fr Russia th it i the mino and n the majo who dete destructive act . We le also th while m may dec social la in conf with nat laws, Nature vetoes th laws mo ruthlessly th did t Czars. Nature has vet the wh Soviet Republic. For i sought t deny nat . It den above a else t right t the fru of lab . Some peo say, "Russia will ha to g to wo ," but th does n describe t case. The fact i that po Russia i at wo , but h work cou for not . It i not fr work. In the United States a workman wo eight ho a d ; in Russia, he wo twelve t fourteen. In the United States, i a wor wishes t lay o a d or a week, a is ab to aff it, th is not to pre him. In Russia, un Sovietism, t workman go to wo whether h wants t or n . The fre of t citizen h disappeared i the disci of a prison-like mono in wh all a treated al . That i slavery. Freedom is t right t work a decent len of ti and t get a decent liv for do so; t be ab to arr the lit personal det of on own li . It i the aggr of th and ma other it of fre which ma up t great ideal Freedom. The minor fo of Freedom lubricate t everyday li of a of u .